Games simulating battle and war situations in which players or teams of players compete against opposing members for amusement are well known in the prior art. Such games range from simple board games to children's playing of war to survival games. One type of survival game which has gained in popularity in recent years is the "paint ball" game in which players fire paint balls through air guns at one another. A player who has been contacted by a paint ball is marked with a permanent marker material, typically paint, thereby indicating a score for the opposing team and taking the "hit" player out of the game. There have been significant drawbacks to the paint ball game, including the damaging of the player's clothing by the marking material as well as injuries to the players, including eye damage and severe bruising caused by the impact of the paint ball to the player's body. Nonetheless, numerous paint balls have been developed to enhance various playing situations. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,018,450 and 5,001,880 to Smith disclose luminescent paint balls for marking nighttime impacts. U.S. Pat. No. 5,393,054 to Rouffer discloses a paint ball comprising a liquid filled gelatin capsule. The paint ball has a density greater than previously known paint balls, enhancing the ballistic characteristics of the paint ball. U.S. Pat. No. 5,590,886 to Lush discloses a reusable paint ball grenade which utilizes a plurality of conventional .68 caliber or smaller paint balls.
Attempts have been made to provide a paint ball or similar type ball which lessens the possibility of injury. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 5,254,379 to Kotsiopoulos et al. discloses a paint ball having a shell filled with a liquid coloring agent, wherein the shell readily fractures upon striking a person with a decreased risk of cutting, bruising or welting of the skin of the person struck by the ball. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,637,616 to Whiting a ball-shaped marking projectile is disclosed comprising a spherical rubber core, a porous layer having a powdered marking material, and a perforated cover. When the projectile strikes a player, the marking material is dispersed through the perforated cover, providing a less hazardous method of marking an opponent.
Despite the efforts of the prior art, a need still exists for a ball which can be fired through a conventional air gun, such as a paint ball gun, which will neither physically mark the player upon impact nor cause severe bruising. Such a ball should be reusable and should be simple and inexpensive to manufacture.